Out of my keen curiosity in learning how to cook, I've joined the cook-off event of Dole to launch the thick, flavorful, and naturally rich in lycopene Dole tomato sauce. Wow, I think it's time to learn some healthy and delicious cooking.

A smorgasbord of tomato sauced foodies were waiting for me when I arrived at Magsaysay Institute for Hospitality and Culinary Arts. (MIHCA).

We were welcomed by the charming and joyful Chef Jeremy Favia who acted as guest judge and mentor in the culinary battle. The first segment of the event was a cooking demonstration from Chef Jeremy. He prepared Cherry Tomato and Eggplant Ragu Penne and Dory Braised in Tomato sauce.

I learned a lot of cooking tips and twists from Chef Jeremy. Plus, I learned that cooked tomatoes, such as those found in DOLETomato Sauce has up to five times more of the antioxidant Lycopene than fresh tomatoes. Apart from that, DOLE tomato sauce is rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C and is a good source of Vitamin K that protects the cells of our body from harmful free radicals and promotes good eyesight, build resistance to infection, and healthy blood functions. Truly, its easy to be healthy with Dole's line of tomato sauces. As Poch Zamora, Dole Philippines Packaged Food Division's Product Manager explained in her opening remarks, "Dole advocates healthy living through our products and activities. We would like to highlight that being healthy should be part of our love for food."

The second segment was when the battle of the Chefs-at-Heart begins. Five were selected among us, they were asked to prepare Cherry tomato and Eggplant Ragu Penne using Dole's tomato sauce.

Enticing aromas filled the air as contestants showed off their cooking skills and battled it out to make the most mouth-watering dishes in the competition. There's no question that the judges had a hard time judging whose cuisine reigned supreme. But in the end, there was only one winner....

Here's the close up shot of his entry...

Indeed, the Dole cook off was a night of gastronomic delight, fun, and healthy cooking.

I think it is the perfect time to introduce my new baby. I just opened a brand new blog about yuppies, The Yuppy Directive. My new website will discuss the modern day young urban professional's stories like those working in a cloud computing companies and perhaps give tips and ideas on how to create a strong and positive relationship with your boss, clients and colleagues in the most effective and innovative way.

It has been an ongoing routine for me and my colleagues to dine out every Saturday morning after shift. This was the third week we had done this "pig out sessions" after a week of workload. We been searching the net for affordable breakfast in Makati but we weren't able to find one. So we decided to try Heaven and Eggs though we knew it was out of our personal budget. The Buffet breakfast was kinda expensive so we decided to order a la cart.

Alfie's Adobo Flakes on Adobo Rice ( Php 235 +)

I chose Alfie's Adobo Flakes on Adobo Rice. My plate was full of flakiest Adobo, with scrambled and salted eggs, pickled vegetables, fresh tomatoes, green mango, adobo rice and adobo sauce. I loved the presentation and taste of the egg.

Lovin' Lucban Longganisa (Php 275.00 +)

Gem had Lucban longganisa served with choice of egg, garlic rice and atchara (pickled papaya). She doesn't like the taste of the egg though. She longed for scrambled egg with maggi magic seasoning.

Nath had breakfast with a French twist Kiss Quiche, crumbly pastry enclosing a creamy custard of eggs, mushrooms, bacon and cream, served with their signature side salad. She doesn't like the egg either, she wanted it Filipino style.

Couple of weeks ago, I signed up for Nuffnang's free screening of Cowboys vs Aliens held at Gateway Mall Cinema. I was one of the bloggers who were selected to watch the movie while munching on the Hot and Oven fresh Pizza courtesy of Pizza Hut.

Before the movie started, we had a meet and greet time with the Nuffnang's friendly executives and staff , and fellow bloggers while savoring great eats also from Pizza Hut's Bistro, here's my plate...

I've been a member of Nuffnang since last year and what I love being a member is the easy access to different products and services, old and new, to be tested and share with you. Nuffnang never failed to impress me with the selection of great products and services to be endorsed. Just like this new campaign for Pizza Hut, the "Hot on the Dot" innovative delivery campaign.

Pizza Hut's Hot on the Dot guarantees that your pizza is delivered hot, which can be proven by placing the HOT dot sticker on the food container. The HOT dot is equipped with thermal sensing abilities allowing the sticker's color to change from black to grey with HOT printed in bold red once it is placed on a hot surface. With this new sticker introduced by the Pizza Hut, they are not only assuring delivery within 30 minutes but also hot and fresh products delivered to you, or your order is free.

I personally witnessed it when the sticker's color changed. I enjoyed the pizza afterwards, it is really hot and tasted oven fresh. When we were inside the cinema, they gave us with additional entertainment from the Dancing Pizza Hut Riders.

The whole experience was a blast. I enjoyed the program, the movie and the free foodies specially the "Hot on the Dot" pizza.

Ding dong!!! Hi guys! What I'm going to deliver to y’all today is a hot and on the dot news from my utmost favorite among pizza deliveries, Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut launched their new and improved delivery with their Hot and on the Dot campaign. By placing the “Hot” dot sticker on the food container, Pizza Hut guarantees that the pizza is delivered with great taste, oven hot, oven fresh, and on time with the speed of 30 minutes delivered to your doorsteps or your pizza is free.

Pizza Hut was the pioneer to offer food deliveries in the Philippines. I'm sure that their delivery hotline 911-1111 is the most famous among others. Pizza hut is definitely the best in food service delivery backed by various awards.

The Cuisineuer was one of the lucky few to be introduced to this innovative delivery campaign. We were treated to awesome foods.

I was pleased when the friendly and Hot hunk Diether Ocampo, celebrity endorser of this world known pizza served us with the world famous, Pinaka-Pizza. What more could I ask for?

To enjoy the great tasting pizza and other Pizza Hut signature products is just at your fingertips, call the Pizza Hut delivery hotline 911-1111 or visit Pizza Hut website and experience the Hot on the Dot delivery.

Whoa, that was a long pause. Sorry guys, my internet connection was down for quite some time. Now its back and I am connected again. I'm so excited to tell more stories about my China trip. I'm more than happy.

I'd like to share this quote from Mahatma Gandhi "My life is a message". I read it on Quotes about Life. from now on, I vow to share my life and hopefully give y'all great message.

What are the best things to do during cold and rainy weekend aside from playing free bingo? Eat and eat and eat, lol!

Apart from the fact that I’m so envious with my cousin Peachy’s Sinigang na Lechon (Roasted Pork in Tamarind Soup), it has been raining here in the past two weeks and the best food (and most requested) to eat during lunch on that rainy weekend was the Filipino classic, Sinigang. So, I made one. We have different variants of Sinigang, what I want in my Sinigang is the slow cooked pork belly. I always have a food orgasm when the pork fat melts in my mouth, priceless!

I want my Sinigang soup, thick. I boiled the taro/gabi long enough to melt to achieve the natural thickness of the soup. Fish sauce should be served separately giving us the liberty to adjust the level of saltiness of the dish.

I wish I have a white BMW Colchester so that I could drive around the Metro Manila and I could try authentic and great restaurants around the city. If ever I have a car my first stop would be Serendra in Fort Bonifacio Taguig. Last year, when I was still working in Market! Market! My plan was to launch a “Project Serendra” aiming to dine in all the restaurants in the vicinity of Serendra. Much to my dismay, it didn’t happen for some reasons. My second destination would be Antipolo. I heard and I saw a lot of blogs and websites featuring beautiful and new restaurants around Antipolo City with great view of Metro Manila. Third destination would be Binondo in the heart of Metro Manila. My first love, which is Chinese cuisine, is no secret to y’all that I love Chinese foodies. I want to explore all Chinese restaurants in China Town. My last food destination but my ultimate dream is to dine in all restaurant located in Tagaytay City. I think, all high end and famous restaurant is located in Tagaytay with the magnificent view of Taal Lake. Good weather is a big plus because I love to dine al fresco.

I was daydreaming about riding the Guildford Boat House while strolling in Glorietta on a cold, stormy weekend when I feel the need to gulp caffeinated beverage. I was in Glorietta 4 in between Bread Talk and Krispy Kreme. I love Krispy Kreme's doughnuts! my favorite is the original glazed doughnut but I never tried their coffee. When I saw the poster posted that said "you will love our coffee as much as our doughnuts" I tought of giving in, so I went inside Krispy Kreme to try their brewed coffee and experience their promise of making that day special.

I ordered the classic Americano, brewed coffee prepared the Krispy Kreme way, made of hot steaming water poured over rich espresso. "to go or for here", the crew politely asked me. I said, "for here" because I hate drinking my coffee from a paper cup. I was a little bit dismayed when the coffee was poured into a paper cup but I did not complain. The crew asked me if I have passport I said yes ( thinking of the real Philippine Passport, lol) and I don't have it with me. She showed me their coffee passport and asked me if I want another one. Oh yes, this is the coffee passport she was referring to, hahahaha, so I got it. The passport has three deals;

Finally, the half day compulsory city tour was over. We headed to Ngong Ping 360 to ride and experience the famous cable car. Unfortunately, cable car ride was under maintenance that day so we had no choice but to ride the bus.

Framed against its tranquil backdrop of the North Lantau Country Park. The Tian Tan Buddha Statue possesses a quiet power that you can't help but admire.

Seated atop 268 steps outdoor, the Tian Tan Buddha Statue is the world's largest bronze Buddha statue. Located on the Ngong Ping Plateau, Lantau Island, this majestic statue is adjacent to Ngong Ping 360's Ngong Ping Village and the Po Lin Monastery.

Tian Tan casts his serene gaze towards the North, making this statue unique amongst its peers because most Buddha statues face South. The statue is positioned on a lotus throne, surrounded by eight smaller bronze statues representative of the gods, or immortals.

Our DIY sidetrip to The Tian Tan Buddha Statue provided us an ultimate escape from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong. I guess Marilyn Monroe's best quotes ""I am not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful." is right. Somehow, although I am not Buddhist, its serene presence is a gest for my soul.

Since I have decided to start cooking my own recipes and the recipes I have gathered and stored for quite a long time I am planning to put labels to my upcoming posts just like other bloggers do on their blog sites. Some bloggers labeled their posts depending on what kind of ingredients they have used like chicken, pork, beef, lamb, veggies, etc. Some labeled it breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack. I saw website using interesting labels like Asian, American, European, African, etc. Another website use, rice, bread, noodles, pasta, etc. I want mine unique and useful.I'm not really sure if labeling is important on my website but I think it will help my readers look for the posts or recipes that I'll be posting soon. I hope labeling is like barcode labels that is easy to put and somehow track my posts. I think what I need is a software that would label my articles and pictures as my intellectual property so that no one could just copy the entry and stole the photos. I searched the world wide web there are several sites offering that kind of label for a fee and its kinda expensive, I couldnt afford it. I'll do the labels manually, I decided, lol!

The compulsary Hong Kong city tour was not all fun. Our tour guide brought us to jewelry factory and a store that sells pricey local products, it was a waste of time. The last destination we visited though was the Sampan Tour Point in Aberdeen harbor. Aberdeen Harbour is between Aberdeen and Ap Lei Chau on Hong Kong Island. Sampan tours depart from the ShumWan Pier opposite Jumbo Kingdom, it's a naturally protected harbour that houses a large fishing community and is a safe haven for boats during typhoons

Sampan is a traditional Chinese wooden boat. All boats for hire were operated by old women. We paid HK$50 each for the ride. The sampan take us past huge wooden boats that are tied together in rows and are floating homes as well as places of work they still go out to sea to fish during the season.

We pass by the Hong Kong Yacht Club and the Jumbo Kingdom Floating Restaurant, a famous and aptly named Hong Kong icon of literally monumental proportions, which featured in the 1974 James Bond movie, The Man With The Golden Gun.

With the dizzying skyline as a backdrop, we spent 30 minutes more around the fishing boat village. It offers a rare opportunity to take a a quick look into the day-to-day lives of the fishermen and their families. We saw women washing clothes, men repairing fishing nets, children playing, dogs running around and families cooking and eating on deck.

Here’s my promise, my recipe for Cream Dory al Pesto. This was my dish during our slumber party last weekend. My plan was to prepare Tuna al Pesto but tuna was not available in the market and I don’t wanna use canned tuna so I replaced it with Cream Dory fillet instead. I hope I could go somewhere like griffonforest to spend a holiday with this recipe.

Let us have a break about my Hong Kong whereabouts and take a closer look at the colors of the wind. Anney's keen eye captured this colorful moment of my niece, ykaie against the colorful windmill toys in Ngong Ping Village

Being a member of Nuffnang Blogger is hot because I have access to deals and freebies wether services, foods, and apparels. It has been a year since I joined Nuffnang and I learned on how to be an efficient online marketer plus the fact that I also earned extra penny.

Here's another hot trend happening right now, Pizza Hut now offers Hot on the Dot Pizza deliveries: 30 minutes AND hot (as indicated by the thermally activated sticker you place on the pizza box upon receiving your pizza) or your pizza is FREE!

After the much anticipated slumber party we had hot, rich, thick, and steaming coffee while watching another horror movie, this time it was a Hollywood film. The kids were half asleep but eventually woke up whenever there are freaky scenes and the screaming are endless. They are the super and hyper kids I knew. I swear, you wouldn't wish to hang out with them, lol! Kidding aside, It was a great experience.

* * * * *

It has been raining hard since Saturday morning. Ater office hours, I braved and bathe in the rain just to go home because I don't have umbrella. Tonight I am not feeling well and I wasnt able to go to work. I suspected that I acquired the flu virus at work. It has been two days of bed rest since Monday but Im still down with flu. I have fever every now and then, severe head and body aches. Two days of no shower is heavy, I am so disabled. I wish I had a disabled showers so that it could be comfortable to take a warm bath. I took medicines every 6 hours. I'm taking bioflu and solmux for treatment. I hope that by tomorrow i'll be ok already.

The slumber party that my cousins and I organized for kiddos and for us to catch up was successful. The kids enjoyed it. The kids wore yellow sleepwear courtesy of the ever fashionable and ultimate party planner, Sissy Anney of Blog ni Ako.

We watched horror movie "Bulong" while feasting on the foodies that we prepared earlier that night. Click here to check out our Slumber Party Food.

Gossip time when the kids were asleep, lol!. We talked about who'll host the next themed party. Stay tuned for more exciting and fun filled party every month.